Pamela Powers

Long-time blogger and political activist, Pamela Powers holds a masters’ degree in public health from the University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from the Ohio State University. She has worked for many years in communications and public relations. Powers stepped down from her position as the managing editor of the American Journal of Medicine to serve Legislative District 9 in the Arizona House. Powers won her seat in November 2016 and won her re-election bid in 2018. She continues to work part-time social media editor for the journal. In addition to Blog for Arizona, she writes her own blog, The The Tucson Progressive and has contributed political stories to the Huffington Post. Powers Hannley is co-director of Arizonans for a New Economy, Arizona’s public banking initiative. Political website: PowersForThePeople.net Facebook Page: Pamela Powers Hannley for House Tucson Progressive on Facebook: Tucson Progressive Twitter handle: @p2hannley Instagram: p2hannley

Blog for Arizona Goes to Netroots Nation!

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Several Blog for Arizona authors will join 100s of progressive activists in Phoenix this weekend for Netroots Nation 2015– Donna Gratehouse, Steve Muratore, Bob Lord, Craig McDermott, and Pamela Powers Hannley. Each year progressive activists meet in a city “with issues”. Last year Netroots met in Detroit. Remember when Detroit had its water crisis? NN14 … Read more

Greek Financial Crisis: The Cruelty of Austerity & The Warning for US

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austerityAusterity means that people is [sic] expulsed of their homes. Austerity means that the social services don’t work anymore. Austerity means that public schools have not the elements, the means to develop their activity. Austerity means that the countries have not sovereignty anymore, and we became a colony of the financial powers and a colony of Germany. Austerity probably means the end of democracy. I think if we don’t have democratic control of economy, we don’t have democracy. It’s impossible to separate economy and democracy, in my opinion.
– Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, Spain’s grassroots anti-austerity movement

Austerity is a lie. It is a cruel economic policy that starves economies, puts people out of work, privatizes public services, closes public facilities, eliminates benefits for the needy, and crushes governments with unsustainable debt. And as Iglesias says above, austerity diminishes democracy because the banks hold the economic power– not the people and the governments they elected.

Greece has been suffering under austerity imposed by the European banks since 2010. Instead of growing the Greek economy, austerity has starved it.

Does this sound familiar? Arizonans should pay close attention to the Greek financial crisis because Governor Doug Ducey is leading us down the same road to ruin.

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TPP

Obama Signs Fast Track & TAA

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The past week has been filled with monumental news stories– from the shootings of 9 African American church goers in Charleston and the subsequent funeral with President Obama giving a moving eulogy, to the burning of several African American churches to history-making SCOTUS decisions upholding Obamacare, Arizona’s independent redistricting commission, and nationwide marriage equality. With all of this going on, it’s no wonder that … Read more

Boo Hoo… Wall Street Says Elizabeth Warren Doesn’t Understand Global Banking

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Elizabeth Warren
In a fiery speech last December, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said when CitiGroup can sneak deregulation into a must-pass governmental budget, it has too much power and should be broken up.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon thinks Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren doesn’t “understand global banking system”.

So, Dimon and Warren don’t have a basic disagreement on how banks should be managed and regulated. Now we know that Liz is just stupid. Obviously, if she fully understood what Dimon and his band of thieves were doing, she wouldn’t be fighting them so hard. Ironically, in recent weeks, President Obama also called Warren’s opinions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) ignorant. In March, Berkshire Hathoway CEO Warren Buffet she is too “angry” and “violent” in her critiques of Wall Street. It pisses me off as a woman, as a progressive, and as a banking reform advocate that Dimon, Obama, and Buffet resorted to personal smears rather than honestly debating Wall Street’s gambling operation and actually doing something about it– like busting up the too-big-to-fail banks or (better yet) taking control of the US money supply out of the hands of privately owned banks.

Warren didn’t take Dimon’s insult lying down.

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US Conference of Mayors to Consider Wall Street Bank Fees & Public Banking (video)

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Downtown Tucson
Downtown Tucson

Cross posted from Arizonans for a New Economy

At their upcoming meeting on June 19-22, the US Conference of Mayors will be considering hundreds of resolutions on everything from gun safety to tax incentives to jobs and education. Tucked into that long list of resolutions is the “Mayors Resolution on Strengthening Municipal Finances“.

This resolution addresses the millions of dollars in fees that Wall Street banks charge cities and challenges mayors to negotiate with bankers to reduce these fees or, alternatively, seek other more affordable means of financing– like establishment of a public bank.

Arizonans for a New Economy and the Public Banking Institute strongly support this resolution. Cities across the country– like Tucson– are strapped for cash and faced with tough budget choices. Paying outrageous bank service and financing fees only starves our local economy. If that cash were here in Tucson, we the people could use it to grow and improve our city– instead of wasting it on lining the pockets of the too-big-to-fail banks.

Bond Issues… booo

How do cities amass such high banking service fees? A major way that cities accrue debt (and related fees and interest) is through bond issues. For example, in recent years voters approved a city bond issue to fix the roads and a county bond issue to build a new animal shelter. On Election Day 2015, voters will be asked to approve yet another bond issue— this one covering everything but the kitchen sink. Listen up, people! Bond issues are not a panacea for all local funding needs. Yes, bond issues allow us to have the services, facilities, and infrastructure improvements we need but can’t fit into the budget– thanks to budget cuts by the Legislature– but bond issues carry a hefty long-term price tag.

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